January 16, day 6

The lecture this morning on music and Hong Kong was insightful. I was stuck by how much he kept talking about Western music and when Western music was mad available to the public. When I asked if before the Western orchestras it was common to see smaller Chinese ensembles performing, I felt like he dodged that answer and brought it right back to Western music. This kept reminding me of that lecture on Music Education and how even China is struggling with too much Western music. This seems so bizarre seeing as how we're in the East, but at the same time it doesn't since, first of all, Hong Kong was a British Colony and, second of all, Westerners like to inflict their culture upon others. But I have to wonder if this is a problem only in Hong Kong as a result of its colonization, or if it is a problem all throughout China and Asia. My guess would be that knowing the amount of Asians who are masters of western instruments it may be a big issue, but definitely something I still need to check out.

Wetland park was a bit of a flop. Maybe it's pretty in the summer, but it was almost depressing and nothing impressive. Oh well, you don't know unless you go. :-P

The Sinfonietta was a really cool thing. Definitely something that I would take my students to see. We need more performances like this in the U.S. that are geared towards those who may not know much about music or don't really care about classical music. I'm a music student and I often get bored seeing Western orchestras! It was refreshing to have some humor and education added to the experience.